The paper's newsroom won 13 first-place awards, 15 seconds and 14 thirds in the statewide journalism contest. Last year, the paper won 32 individual awards and also took home the association's General Excellence award. This year's award will be announced April 25 at the NJPA's annual dinner, where individual winners also will be recognized.

Star-Ledger editor Kevin Whitmer called it "a year of remarkable accomplishments" for the paper.

"Winning awards in New Jersey is difficult because there is so much competition," Whitmer said. "But when you look at where we were successful, it shows an organization with a lot of talent and a lot of depth. There are investigative projects, photos, videos and multimedia elements, great design, incredible breaking news coverage on NJ.com and the continued writing excellence is showcased in those portfolio awards."

The Star-Ledger competes against daily newspapers with circulations of more than 35,000.